Vietnam increases health quarantine at border after WHO’s Monkeypox warnings
VOV.VN - With the World Health Organization (WHO) recently declaring the ongoing Monkeypox outbreak in Africa a global health emergency, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Vietnam has required localities to monitor and detect suspected cases at border gates as well as medical facilities.
In a dispatch dated August 19 to local administrations, the Institutes of Hygiene and Epidemiology, Pasteur Institutes, and central hospitals nationwide, the MoH requested them to promptly implement epidemic prevention and control measures in order to minimise the number of cases and deaths.
It proposed that relevant units actively monitor and detect suspected cases at border gates, especially those returning from countries where monkeypox is endemic.
The MoH also stressed the need to strengthen medical surveillance to detect disease cases at medical facilities in localities to nip in the bud any possible outbreak in the community.
It underscored the importance of organizing training courses for medical staff and enhancing communications to raise public awareness about monkeypox and prevention measures.
By early this year, Vietnam had detected more than 120 monkeypox infections, including six fatalities, with most cases detected in Ho Chi Minh City and other localities such as Lam Dong, Long An, Binh Duong and Can Tho.
Monkeypox, a disease first detected in monkeys in 1958, recorded its first human case in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The disease can be spread from person to person through close contact, wounds, bodily fluids, droplets, and contact with contaminated objects such as blankets and pillows.
It is often severe in children, pregnant women, or immunocompromised people. The incubation period is five to 21 days, usually six to 13 days. Monkeypox has symptoms similar to smallpox, but differs in its systemic skin lesions and enlarged lymph nodes.
According to the WHO, Monkeypox is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, although the virus has now appeared in a dozen other African countries.
It noted that since the beginning of the year, the Democratic Republic of Congo alone has reported 15,600 Monkeypox cases and 537 deaths. Those most at risk include women and children under the age of 15.
The outbreak has spread through 13 countries in Africa, including a few that had never reported Monkeypox cases before.
